Palmdale’s Rapid Growth Is 4th Fastest in U.S.
Low housing prices, job creation, annexation of neighboring areas and overall population increases in Southern California have made Palmdale the fourth fastest growing city in the nation, according to a new U.S. census report and local demographers.
Known for its sprawling tract developments and pioneering aviation production, Palmdale’s population grew 51% between 1990 and 1996, from 70,262 to 106,540, according to U.S. government data. The California Department of Finance put the figure even higher--111,980 by 1996 and a projected 114,874 in 1997.
Since its incorporation in 1962, the city has grown in dramatic starts and stops--with more starts than stops. Los Angeles County statistics show that Palmdale has grown geographically as well, from 77 square miles in 1990 to 102 square miles in 1996, adding thousands of new residents along the way. Even at the height of the recession earlier this decade, Palmdale’s population growth rate continued between 6% and 13%. And there is no sign Palmdale’s expansion will slow down.
Some demographers theorize Palmdale, with its grids of razor-straight roads and Joshua tree-studded landscape, may be a model for the urban future.
“Palmdale is what the growing margins of most cities will look like,” said Dowell Myers, a University of Southern California professor of urban planning. “Southern California as a whole is growing and Palmdale is at the end of the whip.”
Myers said much of Palmdale’s growth can be attributed to relatively moderate growth in the city of Los Angeles, which the U.S. census reported grew only 2% between 1990 and 1996. Like most urban centers, greater Los Angeles is growing at its edges--Orange County, Riverside County and the Antelope Valley.
“During the recession we continued to get international migrants, but domestic migrants tapered off,” he said. “Now domestic migrants are coming in from other states--that turned around in 1996.”
Myers said many of Palmdale’s newcomers were already Westerners, who were seeking a place that looks like home.
“Palmdale is a pickup truck and cowboy hat kind of place,” he said. “It sort of looks like Nevada or Arizona. People tend to move to places that are familiar to them. It’s also cheap.”
The median home value in Palmdale is about $150,000, which is attracting more and more people from more expensive markets like the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles. Two recently approved housing developments in the works include Ritter Ranch, which will have 7,200 dwelling units and City Ranch, with 5,200 approved units.
Approximately 72% of Palmdale residents own their own homes, according to Los Angeles County statistics. About half of Palmdale’s residents are married with children and the city boasts the third largest elementary school district in the region.
“People have come here for a quality of life they haven’t been able to find elsewhere,” said Jim Ledford, who is in his fourth term as mayor.
City officials, understanding that Palmdale’s stark desert landscape could be a hard sell in the future, have implemented an aggressive beautification program. In the past decade Palmdale has built eight parks, an activity center with two roller hockey rinks, a bike trail, hiking trails, a golf course and the Palmdale Playhouse.
“Any family looking to relocate is going to look at what kind of amenities you have to offer” and that goes for corporations as well, said Ledford.
In fact, drawing businesses to Palmdale, which has an unemployment rate of 7.3%, is perhaps the most daunting challenge facing the city if it continues to grow at its present rate. More than 40,000 motorists now commute to Los Angeles on the Antelope Valley Freeway each day, promising traffic nightmares as the area’s population increases. If residents can’t get to work, then work must come to Palmdale.
Last summer Palmdale officials talked with Lancaster officials about sharing sales-tax revenues to end their long-standing competition for businesses. The outcome of those talks is still uncertain.
Palmdale has also aggressively wooed aerospace projects. Despite statewide declines in aerospace employment since 1988, Palmdale is still a bastion of the industry, which employs more than a quarter of the city’s 26,000-person labor force.
Palmdale officials recently offered Lockheed’s Advanced Development Research team $800,000 in infrastructure improvements to lure a $1.1-billion NASA project. Retail jobs and professional services are growing as well, each accounting for about 18% of the city’s labor force.
“We are pro-growth,” said Ledford. “We just need to make sure we keep our balance.”
